Student found injured at RPI

Police say he said he was drinking before he was found on pavement

By Paul Grondahl Staff writer

Updated 9:36 pm, Saturday, June 11, 2011

TROY -- A seriously injured 20-year-old Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute student who said he had been drinking was found shortly before 2 a.m. Saturday near a pool of blood on the pavement below an open third-story window of an RPI dorm, police said.

Bloody and immobile but still conscious when he was found, Kevin Descardes, 20, of Airmont, Rockland County, was taken to Albany Medical Center after he was discovered moaning and crying for help by another student, police said. The extent of his injuries was unknown late Saturday afternoon, police said.

Although categorized as an "accidental fall" in a police incident report, Descardes gave authorities conflicting accounts of what happened, police said.

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At first, Descardes indicated he was beaten up after drinking in a local bar, but later said he fell out a third-story bathroom window on the southeast corner of Building 1 in the Quadrangle Complex along Sage Avenue.

Police interviewed a student who lives across the hall from Descardes on the third floor of the dorm and he said he did not hear any arguing or commotion before Descardes' fall.

Descardes was still hospitalized Saturday afternoon, but his condition was not available, police said.

"Rensselaer looks forward to the student's quick and full recovery," said Michael Mullaney, an RPI spokesman.